The early church father and half-brother of the Lord Jesus whose name is James issued a timely reminder to his readers: “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). He knew that most of us prefers to hear our own voice than to listen to someone.

In this time of Covid-19 quarantine, we can simple replace the noise at work with even more meaningless noise from cable TV or the internet. Or we can seize the moment and listen to what really matters in life.

First, we should listen to God Himself. I do not mean literally of course. He speaks to us principally through His Word, the Bible. Now is the time to examine ourselves before God. He may be calling our attention to flee certain sins in our lives. Or He may be warning us that we are slowly drifting from our faith. Maybe you used to be a zealous Christian, full of life and energy for the work of the Lord. But now you have gone cold and you merely go through the motions. In moments such as this, listen once more to the God of grace. Hear once more the anguished cry of the Lord Jesus on that lonely cross as He bore God’s wrath for your sake.

Second, spend this time by listening literally to nourishing materials. The internet is full of spiritually challenging messages and sermons. For example, the host of this blog, sermonaudio.com has almost 2 million sermons in its archives. Most importantly we should never miss the Word preached during Sunday worship even if its virtual for many of us. The advent of audio books is also a game-changer as we can listen to godly and education books while exercising or doing some menial work.

Third, listen to your family. During normal office days, we tend to rush to and fro from one activity to another. We hardly have time to listen to the stories of our spouses and children. Now that we are with our loved ones day and night, we can listen more carefully to the dreams and pains that they are experiencing.